“Conflicts of interest impact the regulatory playing field. When you have a rating agency that is paid by the issuers of the securities it is supposed to rate on an objective and independent basis, that conflict reduces the rating agency’s margin for error. If a football referee was paid by one team (in this analogy, the issuers) against another team (the investing public), any ‘close call’ in favor of the ‘home team,’ even an honest one, would draw screams of favoritism from the visitors. If you’re going to operate from that conflict position, you’d better be right.”